Comedy is about quality not quantity
In the same week I saw two of Atlanta’s improv troupes: Dad’s Garage and Village Theatre. Dad’s Garage is an Atlanta staple, one of the most popular and well known group of funny people. Village, though around since 2008, is not as recognizable. And from what I saw during their Christmas with Jerks sketch show, I think I know why.
It just wasn’t funny. The audience, when I was there, seemed pretty young, and on their way to being very drunk, and even with those two easy-humor factors there was way too much silence during the duration of the show. It made you feel bad for the actors, as well as bad for yourself. The need to force a chuckle here and there to break the unease that was leaving the stage and entering the audience like a fog began to take over. There was no energy, no ingenuity, no real comedy.
Some of the sketches seemed to be pulled straight from Saturday Night Live, such as the man baby, which was used way to recently to be ignored. The thing that makes those characters and actions on SNL funny is that they are new, or reoccurring. They aren’t stolen and mimed. When I go to a local comedy spot I want to see what is inside their own twisted minds, not what came from somebody else three weeks ago.
My fellow attendance member had a thought: the writing was awful, so maybe they are better at improv? I had to disagree. Usually these troupes perform together, write together, and work through this process together. And my thought is, if you can’t be funny after spending lots of thinking time, rehearsal time, and rewriting time to produce a sketch, then how are you going to be funny off the cuff?
Obviously there are tons of theaters and groups out there who think they are funny and start something up. Village Theatre has a great space below the Pencil Factory Lofts. So either they will fall victim, as will others, and never see a ticket sale again, or they need to start editing. I would start with the performers, who I’m sure must also be the writers. There was barely any definition or commitment to character (the exception was Josh Warren, who was by far the best on stage for being present, moldable, and committed), which if there would have been probably would have saved a lot of the sketches. It would have at least made it silly, which could have produced laughs… maybe.
I’m interested, but skeptical, at what their improv looks like. Maybe Village theatre pulls out the big guns for those shows and lets interns or students take part in the sketch comedy. I still have hope for Village Theatre, they are in a great area that is growing and changing and building up credit and traffic. If this was a whoopsie, a bad day, or an accident that now will never be repeated, I will totally get behind them. As for Christmas with Jerks, I’m thankful, as I’m sure the performers are, that it is closing this weekend. Nothing is worse than hearing chairs shift, people leave, and choose to pee rather than wait for the punchline.
